This year’s team has two seniors, Dixie Rhea and Gabe Polley.
RANGELY I Heading in two directions this past weekend, the Rangely Panther cross country teams opened up their seasons with the first official meets of the year. On Friday, a handful of Panthers made the short trip to Meeker to kick off the official season opener. Colton Noel, who has been dealing with an injury, led the group of boys as he finished with a time of 23:25. The group seemed to like the new course, located on the Meeker golf course, much more than last week’s trails, as every member competing saw huge improvement in times.
“I was super impressed with how all of them ran. Both Byron Mackey and Brent Cantrell took off over eight minutes from the time they ran last week,” said coach Beth Scoggins.
Saturday, Scoggins took the rest of the team to the Basalt Invitational in El Jebel. On the way to the meet, the team hit some heavy road construction and traffic, and found that this was just the beginning of the adversity they would encounter. Arriving at the meet just a half hour before start time, the teams were greeted by rain, wind, and several COVID-19 racing guidelines.
Making the most of the morning though, Mary Scoggins led the girls’ team with a 13th place finish and time of 21:20. The rest of the girls followed the trend set at Meeker the day before, taking off significant amounts of time as they ran in the less than ideal conditions. Adelynn Halcomb took 12 minutes off of her time from last week.
The boys’ team started shortly after the girls finished, and this week it was Alex Black who finished first. Black, who was competing in his first official cross country race ever, finished 26th overall with a time of 20:22. Andrew Dorris was right behind Black, then Kevin Wren came across the line in third for the Panthers while running nearly eight minutes faster than what he ran the week before. The rest of the boys’ team also saw a lot of improvement.
“I’m so excited about how all the kids are running,” said coach Scoggins. “It’s incredible seeing how quickly some of them are starting to figure out this whole distance running thing. They’ve been working hard and have had a great attitude. This first official weekend of racing was great for all of the kids and I can’t wait to see how the remainder of the season goes.”
The Panthers will race in Hotchkiss this upcoming Saturday.
Special to the Herald Times
